Election Protest

September 15, 1985

HERMOSILLO, MEXICO — The legislature had no legal standing. Neither did the governor. But an installation ceremony took place, and 1,000 people watched. It was a political maneuver by the National Action Party (PAN) to protest what it said were rigged elections in Sonora state won by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Carlos Amaya, PAN's state president, called the mock legislature the beginning of a ''permanent movement'' that would be a ''great moral force'' for reform. He said the body will offer electoral reform ideas to the real legislature and speak out on social issues.